How to learn JavaScript (my story).

17 Sep 2012

JavaScript (commonly abbreviated to JS), the scripting language of the web. This post will be unlike others, this post has my story, my journey, of how I learnt (and am learning) the beautiful language.

It's a scripting language with it's main purpose to add interaction to a static page. You can do a lot with it, like modify the CSS, do stuff when someone clicks on a button, make image sliders, do animation, and a lot more.

There are libraries too. Libraries are basically helpers, you still write javascript, but it's (usually) easier to write (so people can't technically be ‘jQuery programmer’). Some popular libraries are jQuery, Dojo, Mootools.

If someone tells you to learn a library first, then normal javascript, don't. Learning JS first will give you a better grasp on how things are done, when (and if) you have to use a library.

Also, remember that libraries don't add anything new. Everything you can do with a library can be done in regular js (Regular JS is known as ‘Vanilla JS’).

With this, I conclude the intro. Let's start!

Learn at Codeacademy

I started doing 1-2 exercises everyday, and soon reached 5 exercises each day.

Codeacademy basically is lesson style learning. You are presented with a set of tasks, and a few instructions, and you have to complete the tasks using the code editor you are given. Once you submit, they verify the code. If you pass, you continue with the next exercise.